Chapter four
Steve cursed to himself as he read the instructions rapidly texted to him by Nat. They included the restaurant to take Darcy to, things to talk about, basically everything he needed to get through this potential date as smoothly as possible.
"What if she never wants to see us again?" Bucky's voice sounded through their apartment, panic colouring his tone.
"You need to calm down Buck." Steve replied, dropping his phone and glaring at his hair in the mirror as he attacked it with a comb.
"I am calm!" He shouted, pacing up and down their closet, staring at all of the clothes that were completely wrong for Darcy.
"You are not fucking calm!" Steve shouted back, wincing as his hair messed up, once again.
"Better put a censor on that mouth when we're with her Stevie! Wouldn't want to put her off!"
"Oh shut it Buck! You know just as well as I do that she's got a dirty mouth."
"Is it weird that that makes her even more attractive to me?"
"Hell no. She's the prettiest little thing that I've ever seen."
"A real spitfire as well."
"Bucky?" Steve stepped away from the mirror, his hair all over the place to stare at Bucky, who stepped out of the closet wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and socks.
"Yeah Steve?"
"I think we're already completely sweet on her."
"She's gonna ruin us Stevie, I can feel it."
"Wouldn't want to be ruined any other way Buck."
"You're Goddam right."
*******
Bruce sighed, stretching back into the bed with Clint as Natasha rapidly texted Steve on her phone.
"We shouldn't get involved Nat." Clint moaned, enjoyed Bruce's ministrations on his neck.
She looked up with a raised eyebrow before resuming texting.
"Come on, they need to figure it out for themselves." He sighed again, as Bruce's thumb dug into a particularly painful knot.
The rumpled scientist nodded. "We figured it out for ourselves, they should too."
Natasha looked up again, this time with an amused grin. "Are you sure about that?"
"About what?" He asked, hands slowing to a stop on Clint's neck.
"Figuring it out for yourself. Are you sure that's exactly what happened?"
"What do you mean? Of course I figured it out by myself. I'm the one who asked you two out."
"Yeah, about that..." Clint said, slowly sitting up to stare at the scientist. "That's not exactly what happened."
"Yes it it." He said, crossing his arms. "I was working late and got into the elevator. You two happened to be there, then I invited you out to dinner. That's exactly what happened."
Natasha shrugged. "More like we planted Chinese food in the vents so the smell would blow into your labs and waited in the elevator for an hour before you decided that you were hungry enough to finish working."
Bruce's jaw dropped.
"What? You didn't. You couldn't have." He looked at Clint who shrugged guiltily. "Oh my God."
"Sorry Bruce, but you were too shy to directly ask us out and you kept avoiding us!" He said earnestly, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"How did you even know that would work? I might not have asked you to join me." Bruce asked incredulously, glancing between the two spy assassins.
Natasha smirked. "Well it took a couple tries, but eventually you asked us."
"How many times did you do that?"
His two Soulmates looked at each other, communicating with just a look when Clint finally answered.
"Seven times."
"Seven!"
The archer shrugged. "Give or take."
He flopped back onto the bed. "Everything I know is a lie. Did I even want to move in with you two? Or is it the result of some far fetched plan?"
The two flopped down on either side of him and cuddled into his side. "We had nothing to do with you moving in with us." Clint whispered.
"That was just the result of months and months of wooing." Natasha smiled into his side.
"I think that your definition of wooing and my definition are two very different things."
The three laughed and Bruce found that he wouldn't have it any other way.
*******
"Uh... Hi..." Darcy stammered, skin ripening in a deep blush. Bucky leaned against the door frame, hair slicked back into a man bun that made her knees feel weak. Steve was stood straight, hair neatly parted in the middle wearing khakis and a crisp button down. Bucky wore a leather jacket and black skinny jeans. They both wore matching combat boots.
All in all, they looked absolutely delicious.
And awkward.
"Hey doll, we just had to... You know... Apologize. What Buck did wasn't right." Steve said, stretching up and rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand. His skin darkened into a blush that rivalled hers.
"Yeah, I shouldn't have carried you off like that. I just panicked at finally finding you." Bucky chimed in.
"So we wanted to apologize by taking you to dinner." The blond continued.
"And get to know ya." Bucky said, a smirk stretching his lips.
"If that's what you want." Steve was quick to add in, neatly elbowing the brunette in the side.
"You can say no, you don't have to see us ever again, if you don't want doll."
"Completely your decision. We'll be respectful of whatever you decide."
"But we brought ya somethin', just to apologize." Bucky said, bringing around his metal arm to present her with a small bouquet of flowers. They were white lilies, her favourite flowers. He awkwardly thrust them at her, like a gawky teenager asking somebody out for the first time.
She reached out a hand to gently stroke one petal, before scooping them out of his hands and smelling them.
"Nobody has ever bought me flowers before." She said, looking up with a shy smile.
They both smiled back, matching expressions but it was Steve who answered.
"Than there ain't nobody who's been treatin' you right doll."
They all stood in a warm silence for a few seconds, just smiling at each other before Darcy spoke again.
"You said something about dinner?"
They grinned.